Completed career: my observations [ Edited ]

[NLxAROSA]

Completed the career yesterday (Challenging). A few observations from my end:

1. Game doesn't explain all mechanics very well, esp. around how to deal with cops, evade, turn off engine, etc. But also tuning/setup etc.

2. Calendar time limit feels tacked on. Having to repeat the Friday, general lack of credits and car rewards.

3. Difficulty scaling is whack. I play on Challenging but going down to Relaxed hardly does anything. I can imagine that being way to hard for a lot of people. Oh, and rubberbanding should work both ways, not just letting the AI catch up with the player.

4. Some of the effects flash animations in the center of the screen while in the middle of a 250 kmh race in oncoming traffic. Really annoying.

5. The game really opens up after the career mode, feels like a beginning/main game rather than an endgame, which makes the career feel like a chore.

6. Loving the cop chases, choppers, etc. but this needs some balancing. Current setup is fine for Challenging/Intense, but not for Relaxing.

7. Cars with the same tuning rating vary way too much in usefulness, e.g. there's a massive imbalance between AWD and RWD cars. Combined with #2 this makes it hard to experiment and figure out which cars/setups work. You end up spending a lot of time on Friday or starting over. Speaking of which: starting over needs a menu option, not fiddling with files.

8. Performance degrades over time with my nVidia card. Restart/back to main menu fixes this

9. Overall this is a really great title, but it needs some balancing, esp. at lower difficulty settings

8/10 for me, but I can totally understand the frustration from people looking for some relaxed NFS action, this game is pretty hardcore at the moment.

[paksangsoo]

Any recommendations for the car to buy/use for "The Grand" ?

I've had to repeat fridays a bunch of times already in previous weeks, so I have no money for an S+ car --- let alone enough money to try a few different cars with different upgrades.  (The progression in this game doesn't make any sense).

[NLxAROSA]

@paksangsoo I used the GT-R from the last qualifier and boosted that to S+. Was doable on Challenging, but was less than a car length difference on the finish line.

My favorite RWD car (Boss 302) lasted until A+, was no longer viable in S (for me anyway, YMMV with a different setup/driving style)

[paksangsoo]

@NLxAROSA Thanks!

[TheBestestCow]

A bit off topic, but do you unlock the Higher tier cars after the grand? Like the Mclaren F1?

[NLxAROSA]

@TheBestestCow Cars are locked behind deliveries or challenges. You still need to do those after doing The Grand. And you can. Missed deliveries will also pop up over time.

[LudgerKampschulz]

I only completed the game with the cars I had won because I had no motivation to save up for a car to progress further in the story, which I think is a shame. Even after a clear pursuit, I switched off the game and didn't touch it for months because it was very depressing for me because I didn't want to/couldn't repeat the day. The calendar system made me finish the game as quickly as possible and after that I never played it again because there was no incentive.